I loved Michael Lerner’s book, The Left Hand of God, and also George Lakoff‘s, The Political Mind, which asks us to inject spiritual values into political discourse.  I want so badly to hear progressives talk about meaning rather than just policy.  All policy grows from values anyway, why hide it?  But then again, I don’t often spout my values either.  I imagine it’s a hard habit to pick up.  But I always think that smart progressive politicians like Hillary Clinton and Obama, while I do not doubt they are Christian, cannot possibly practice their religion in the literal fundamentalist sense, but have a higher, symbolic understanding of the tenets of their faith.  I always wish people would be more honest about what they really believe, and how they interpret things, instead of playing the game that the conservative end of the spectrum demands.  But of course, Puritans can be scary, witch-hunting, easily-threatened people and I‘ve hidden my own beliefs around them before.  One of my goals in life is to better understand them, better share the world with them, and figure out how to talk to them without pretending to be something I’m not.